5/21/2013

Carlotta Wren's world is crumbling beneath her well-shod feet. One of her closest friends has been arrested as the Charmed Killer, but Carlotta refuses to believe it. And to prove her friend's innocence, Carlotta goes against her boyfriend Peter's wishes and resumes her after-hours body-moving duties.

And then…

Peter pressures her for an answer to his proposal…

Her troubled brother Wesley goes missing…

And the madman stalking the city strikes again, this time a little too close to home.

But when Carlotta finds herself in the clutches of the Charmed Killer, is she destined for her own body bag?

Go with God and Fight Like the Devil. The remarkable new novel by Britain’s master storyteller, which culminates at the Battle of Poitiers.

1356: France stands alert to danger. The English army, victorious at the battle of Crécy and led by the Black Prince, is invading and the French are hunting them down. The bloodiest battles of the Hundred Years War are yet to be fought.

Thomas of Hookton, an English archer, becomes trapped withhis outnumbered army. And here, near the town of Poitiers, an extraordinary confrontation will ignite one of the greatest battles of all time.

Review

“The first must-read of 2013 arrives….Bernard Cornwell is a master of combining a thumping good tale with a fascinating history lesson.” (Reader's Digest )

“In addition to carving out another action-packed martial adventure, Cornwell spotlights one of the most significant but often overlooked battles of the era.” (Booklist )

"Alas, Babylon." Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.

Review

"A warm, continuously interesting story of what can happen to a group of ordinary people in a perilous situation." New York Herald Tribune -New York Herald Tribune

In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element. She has the tools to help people, and she has the desire—healing broken families is what she lives for. But Nadine doesn’t want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years.

When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?

And then, the unthinkable happens, and Nadine realizes that danger is closer to home than she ever imagined. She has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most…and fight back.

Sometimes you can leave the past, but you can never escape.

Told with the trademark powerful storytelling that has had critics praising her work as “Gripping” (Kirkus), “Jaw-dropping” (Publishers Weekly) and “Crackling with suspense” (People magazine), ALWAYS WATCHING shows why Chevy Stevens is one of the most mesmerizing new talents of our day.

Review

Chevy Stevens intelligently and relentlessly pulls the reader deeper into the nightmarish world of a cult whilst compelling you to read just one more page ... Rosamund Lupton A harrowing tale of manipulation that got under my skin by the end of the first chapter Linwood Barclay A chilling, compelling read William Landay A fantastic, heart-pounding thriller that pulls you in from the first page. I loved it! Lisa Jackson Frank, fierce, and sometimes even funny, this is a dark tale pinpricked with light-and told by an unforgettable heroine Gillian Flynn on Still Missing Grabbed me from page one. Its story of power, murder, and family secrets is seductive and sinister Meg Gardiner Haunting and harrowing, Always Watching is a stunner Megan Abbott Powerful novel of psychological suspense Publishers Weekly

From New York Times bestselling author of The Husband Hunt, The Heiress, and other beloved historical romances, comes Lynsay Sands’s An English Bride in Scotland, the first book in a new series set in the wilds of the Highlands.

Annabel had planned to become a nun. But when her mother arrives at the Abbey to bring her home to marry a Scottish laird—her runaway sister’s intended husband—her life takes a decidedly different turn.

And though Annabel isn’t the wife he’d planned for, strong, sexy Ross McKay is taken with his shy, sweet bride.

Annabel knows nothing about being a wife, running a castle—or the marriage bed. But her handsome new husband makes her want to learn. When Annabel’s life is threatened, Ross vows to move the highlands itself to save her and preserve the passion that’s only beginning to bloom.

“Her trademark humor and genuine characters...kept her series fresh and her readers hooked.” (Publishers Weekly )

“Sands spins a funny, laughable tale; you’ll cheer as the drunk and the shrew discover they are a ‘perfect match’.” (Eloisa James )

Annabel was about to take the veil to become a nun,when her mother suddenly arrived at the abbey to take her home . . . so that she can marry the Scottish laird whois betrothed to her runaway sister! She knows nothing aboutbeing a wife, nothing about how to run a household,and definitely nothing about the marriage bed.

He never expected to fall in love

From the moment Ross MacKay sets eyes on Annabel,he is taken with his shy, sweet bride . . . and the fact that she'sblessed with lush curves only makes him utter hisown prayers of thanks. But when an enemy endangers her life,he'll move the Highlands themselves to save her. For thoughAnnabel's not the bride he planned for, she's the only woman he desires . . .

In the Old Testament, God called His people to action with the blast of the shofar, a ram’s horn. He still calls His people today.

In this relevant and timely novel, dynamic young preacher Paul Hudson is committed to building his church—but at what cost? When Paul accepted the call to pastor the struggling church, he had no idea what to expect. But it didn’t take long for Paul to turn Centerville Christian Church around. Attendance is up, way up, and everything is going so well. If only his wife, Eunice, could see it that way. Still, he tries not to let her quiet presence distract him. But Eunice knows that something isn’t right . . . and it hasn’t been for a long time.

The more Paul’s zeal and ambition builds, the more he loses sight of the One who called him. As Paul and those around him struggle to discern what it truly means to live out their faith, they must ultimately choose between their own will and God’s plan.

Review

Rivers' And the Shofar Blew is about a young minister, Paul Hudson, who takes on a small, perhaps even a dying, church in central California. Paul is hardworking and ambitious, but his ambition soon overcomes the real purpose of his work, so that questionable means begin to seem justified for his laudable aims. In the mix also are Eunice, his wife, and a newly converted, reformed alcoholic named Stephen Decker, who designs Paul's brand-new church. Rivers seems to grow more moralistic with each book but as usual turns in a strong narrative, posing issues that ring loud and clear if only within church circles. John Mort - Booklist

Andrew Yancy—late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff’s office—has a human arm in his freezer. There’s a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it’s not called the roach patrol for nothing). But first—this being Hiaasen country—Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy’s new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasen’s greatest characters.

Here is Hiaasen doing what he does better than anyone else: spinning a tale at once fiercely pointed and wickedly funny in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of what’s left of pristine Florida—now, of the Bahamas as well—get their comeuppance in mordantly ingenious, diabolically entertaining fashion.

A stunning, moving tale of forbidden love in segregated 1930s Kentucky, perfect for fans of The Help.

Love doesn't play by the rules . . .

Shalerville, Kentucky, 1939. A world where black maids and handymen are trusted to raise white children and tend to white houses, but from which they are banished after dark. Sixteen-year-old Isabelle McAllister, born into wealth and privilege, finds her ordered life turned upside down when she becomes attracted to Robert, the ambitious black son of her family’s housekeeper. Before long Isabelle and Robert are crossing extraordinary, dangerous boundaries and falling deeply in love.

Many years later, eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle will travel from her home in Arlington, Texas, to Ohio for a funeral. With Isabelle is her hairstylist and friend, Dorrie Curtis – a black single mother with her own problems. Along the way, Isabelle will finally reveal to Dorrie the truth of her painful past: a tale of forbidden love, the consequences of which will resound for decades . . .

‘If Julie Kibler's novel Calling Me Home were a young woman, her grandmother would be To Kill a Mockingbird, her sister would be The Help and her cousin would be The Notebook. But even with such iconic relatives, Calling Me Home stands on her own’ Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home

‘Julie Kibler’s writing is so wise and assured. I laughed out loud in places and had tears in my eyes as I turned the last page’ Diane Chamberlain

Review

"Kibler’s unsentimental eye makes the problems faced unflinchingly by [Isabelle and Dorrie] ring true. Love and family defy the expected in this engaging tale." —Kirkus

"A rousing debut about forbidden love and unexpected friendships. . . . In this compelling tale, Kibler handles decades of race relations with sensitivity and finds a nice balance between the characters of Dorrie and Isabelle. Drawing from her own family history in Texas, Kibler relays a familiar story in a fresh way.” —Publishers Weekly

"This is deeply affecting coming-of-age story with radiant characters who will remain with the reader long after the last page is turned." —Romantic Times

Abducted by the alien Catteni, Kristin Bjornsen was one of many humans brought to the planet Botany as part of an experiment to see if it could support life. Enslaved and forced to colonize a world not their own, the settlers have accepted Botany as their home—a home worth fighting for…

Kristin’s people have learned that the aliens responsible for their imprisonment are merely mercenaries, subjugated by the parasitic Eosi Race, and that Botany is being farmed remotely by some unknown species—a species that may be sympathetic to the colonists’ struggle for freedom.

The “Farmers” refuse to join the humans in their rebellion against the Catteni, but they agree to use their technological skills to shield Botany and hide it from its enemies—buying Kristin and the settlers time to build up their forces and liberate their world…

5/20/2013

The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez

Book description:

Mars is supposed to be dead…

Bizarre quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll—seemingly of their own volition—carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their routine geological survey of a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.

Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents…and the immense Void between the Known Worlds.

With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl witha remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who hasembarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the veryfabric of space itself.